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Josef Braun
Oberst Josef Braun was a Heer officer during the Battle of the Bulge. Insistent that he'd never spent a Christmas without his family, he invited his wife Lilly and son Phillip to the occupied Belgian town near the front to spend the holidays with him. He soon came to regret this decision, as an Allied air raid against the town riddled his car - a captured US Army officer's Ford staff car - with bullets, badly injuring Lilly as they were driving. Speeding to find help, he crashed the car near the Hammond house, where he found US Army Captain John Myers holding one of his men, Leutnant Hans Mahler, at gunpoint, having unwittingly stumbled into a skirmish between his men and a small group of American commandos operating behind enemy lines. The injuries of Lilly Braun took precedent, and Myers and Berkowitz removed her from the Oberst's car and tended to her injuries while Dubois held Braun, Mahler and their men at gunpoint. They also found Phillip Braun hiding in the back seat. His efforts to coax the boy out seemed futile at first, and when Oberst Braun saw the car explode, he was certain his child had died. He drew his Luger and prepared to shoot someone, anyone, but Alina Hammond grabbed his arm, stopping him, and he ended up getting into a fistfight with resistance member Pierre Dubois. However, it turned out Myers had gotten Phillip out the car in time and the boy was fine. He and Dubois pointed their guns at one another and argued. Braun insisted that if they surrendered they'd be treated fairly, but Dubois claimed he was lying, citing instances of prisoners being executed. An emotional Braun then demanded to know if they didn't surrender, then what? They'd all die for nothing. The group agreed on a truce until Lilly could be saved by Berkwitz, but Braun swore that if she died, Dubois would be next. Initially, he didn't want an American medic touching his wife, but with the town doctor having died the previous week, Berkowitz was Lilly's only chance for survival. He spent most of his time during the truce sitting in church with his son, praying for his wife's recovery. Speaking candidly with Myers, he explained that his father was a patriot and he never personally cared much for the Nazis, but felt it was his duty to fight in the war for Germany no matter who was running the government. Berkowitz, meanwhile, was able to save Lilly's life. When a German division began moving towards the village, Myers and his group believed Braun had doublecrossed them. He seemed to confirm this suspicion when he confronted them with his Luger drawn, but instead, he let them go. After the Germans retook the town, Braun found himself being dressed down by an Obersturmbannführer from the SS. Despite the fact he outranked the man, the zealous SS officer insisted he would see to it that Braun was court-martialed and hanged for treason because of the truce. After the Obersturmbannführer left, Braun angrily smashed a framed photograph of Adolf Hitler, then noticed Myers disguised as a Heer Hauptmann and followed him. Confronting him, he demanded to know why he'd come back after he'd let him go, while Myers demanded to know what had befallen the Hammond family, Alina in particular. Braun revealed he'd ordered the town to be evacuated and that the Hammonds had been sent north along with Lilly and Phillip. He revealed Mahler had just reported to him that Americans had attacked the Heer troops escorting the townspeople, and that the townspeople, as well as Lilly and Phillip Braun, were now in US custody. He asked Myers to find his wife and give her a letter he'd written her, then told him never to return. "There is only death here." To make Myers' escape look genuine, Braun yelled "Halt!", summoning Mahler and a group of soldiers, who shot at the fleeing American. Mahler, unaware that it had been Myers, asked if they should check for a body; instead, Braun simply replied they were being ordered back to the front lines, sending him to gather their men. He was captured by the British near Malmedy and imprisoned in a P.O.W. camp run by the Soviets, but he escaped when he and three other men were dragged out. For reasons unknown to Braun, the Soviet guards shot two of the other man, but let him and the remaining man go free. Returning to the Belgian town after the war, he encountered Alina, who revealed Myers had in fact given the letter to Lilly, and that she'd written back to tell her husband that she was dying of an infection and that Phillip was being cared for in an orphanage. By the time he received the letter, Lilly was already dead, but he was eventually reunited with his son. Awards *Iron Cross 1st Class *Iron Cross 2nd Class *Wound Badge (Black) Notes *He is missing the wreath on his cap, as are all the Heer officers in the film. Braun, Josef Braun, Josef Braun, Josef Braun, Josef Braun, Josef Braun, Josef Braun, Josef Braun, Josef Braun, Josef Braun, Josef Braun, Josef Braun, Josef